Greatest tool

My husband and I both love the buddy. Helps a great deal easy to use and update.

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Replacement battery for Skycaddie SG4

I searched the net for a replacement battery for my Skycaddie and found them priced from $39.99 to $19.99. I was skeptical about whether or not the $19.99 item branded Magellan was the same as the more expensive ones. I contact the seller and he assured me that they were in fact the same. It turns out that Magellan manufactures the batteries for Sky Golf. The battery works great I highly recommend this replacement battery.More detail ...

Decent Nylon Carrying Case

The uPro soft case fits the uPro GPS well albeit a little snugly but is a bit bulky making it difficult to fit into a shallow pocket on a golf bag. With the uPro GPS in the protective skin it is difficult to slide into the carrying case because of the snug fit. While the case will effectively hold the uPro GPS and provide some protection for it to and from the course as advertised unless you plan on hanging your uPro GPS on the outside of your bag the case is of nominal value. More detail ...

A Great Golf GPS

I read all the reviews and compared all the features of golf GPS's before selecting the Golf Buddy Pro. I especially liked the feature that all the courses and course information were already loaded on the unit or available for free from the Golf Buddy website. And of course that large color screen. When I received the unit I immediately put it on the charger while I reviewed the User Manual...it's pretty slim because the unit does most functions automatically. The next day I went golfing. Within 5 minutes the unit initallized and indicated I was on the first hole of Highlands Reserve. The unit advanced automatically hole by hole without any user input from me. The GPS seems very accurate and the screen is exceptionally bright in all lighting conditions. I did notice that if your riding a cart it takes a few seconds for the unit to stablize after stopping before giving an accurate distance. I am now using some of the more advanced features including adding and editing my own hazards measuring distances hit and keeping track of my scores. Ok does it really help your game. The answer is yes!More detail ...

A few bugs but overall an excellent experience

I've now played 30+ rounds with the uPro. Its got some good points and some bad I suppose this is like any new device especially one that is from a brand new company.



The Good

- Distances are right on.

- Basic mode gives you a quick easy to read view of distance to the green and distance to reach and carry hazards.

- Mark feature allows you to measure the length of your shots. Sometimes gives erroneous readings. However this only happened when I kept the uPro in my pocket so maybe buttons were being pressed by accident.

- Aerial view of the hole is awesome. Like looking at a yardage book with continuously updating distances. There is a small red diamond that marks your position on the hole and moves with you. I almost ran into a 150 yard pole because I was so fascinated with watching the little diamond track my position on the satellite view! Hazards like bunkers are marked front and back and also update continuously.

- Measure Mode lets you get a measurement to any point on the hole. I have used it to find the distance back into the fairway but you really need a tree or something on the satellite image to reference. I have also used it to find distances not mapped by the company like a layup distance to the front of a creek.

- Trans-reflective screen is easy to see in Basic View even in bright sunlight. However in Pro Mode it can be difficult to see. You need to experiment with the viewing angle to get it right. I've found that in bright sunlight you can see the screen best if you are angling it just off where the sun would be reflecting into your eyes. Or shade the screen with your hand.

- No subscriptions! You pay only for the courses you want. Courses cost the same no matter where in the country (and eventually the world) they are located. You never have to buy a course twice even if you upgrade the device or have to replace the unit (lost stolen broken). Courses are expensive if you buy them one at a time. One course costs $10 (3 credits) but if you buy 150 credits ($120) that comes to only $2.40 per Pro course. I bought 150 credits and I probably won't ever have to buy credits again (at least not for a very long time).





The Bad

- One course had strangely mapped points on a couple holes. Some don't make sense (you can tell they haven't played the course!) However I sent an email to support and they corrected the problem in a couple weeks.

- Sync is VERY slow. I timed it and to sync and download 1 course took over 10 minutes. Be patient.

- When syncing the status box shows up in front of all other windows (on Windows XP) and cannot be moved to the back. So your computer is effectively stuck doing one thing for 10 minutes.

- No subscriptions. I put this item in both The Good and The Bad because it depends on your point of view. If you play a whole lot of courses (more than 50) then it could get quite expensive. But I play only about 15 courses on a regular basis plus about 3 or so each year on a vacation trip.

- Distances do not automatically update if you are using the measure function in Pro Mode. You have to either exit measure mode or switch back to basic mode to get an update distance.

- Not all courses are mapped yet. In Denver about 70% of the courses are mapped. But of the 15-20 I play regularly about 95% are mapped. Many of those that are not mapped yet are scheduled to be mapped in 2008. There is a schedule on uPro's website (www.uprogps.com). And if you choose an unmapped course as your home course they will have it mapped in 4 business days guaranteed. I would recommend checking all the courses you play before buying this device.





The Ugly

- The software needs a little work--freezes up from time to time. During the first two rounds it froze up once in each round. While annoying all you have to do is hold the power button down for 8 seconds to force a power-off then turn it back on. Of course the re-boot process and getting back to your current hole takes a couple minutes. Their customer service department claims a firmware update will be available "in the next few weeks". I turned off the "automatic hole advance" and this seemed to fix the problem. The last 25+ rounds were freeze-up free after changing this setting. The automatic hole advance is unnecessary in my opinion. From the "Green View" you can simply press the up button to advance to the next hole or press the down button to go to the previous hole.





Suggestions

- Create a graphical overlay for the aerial views or figure out a way to make them higher contrast. The Pro Mode can be somewhat difficult to see in bright sunlight.

- Faster downloading/sync

- Find and fix the bugs in the software that cause the freeze-ups

- If the upcoming software can mark every ball location its only a matter of time before it will keep your score shot-by-shot. On the uPro website they state that additional software to keep score will be available by late summer 2008. Of course if it freezes up and you lose data then such a feature is worthless.





The Bottom Line

This is a very new company and a very new product. Like most new products they have a few bugs to work out. I'm going to stick with them and hopefully they will be committed to fixing the problems. If a year goes by and the same problems exist I might regret this purchase. But right now I'm pretty darn happy with it!More detail ...

GolfLogix

I am very happy with my GolfLogix GPS system. Many of my friends have the SkyCaddie and my GolfLogix is at least equal to theirs. Usually we are all within 2 yards of each other with the GolfLogix more closely matching

the GPS systems in the golf carts. I highly recommend it. I did not purchase the color screen and don't recommend it unless you really need it. It took about 15 minutes to download 20 of the courses I play. Did not find any missing courses. When I show up at a course I just turn on my GolfLogix and within 10 minutes it has located the course and goes to the first hole. No scrolling necessary. Have used the same 4 AA batteries for the past 4 rounds and they are still not drained. You can also use rechargeble batteries. Nice feature.More detail ...

Better GPSs are out there

I was one of their early adopters (way before USGA and R&A made them legal) and had their original SkyCaddie. Back then it was a technological breakthrough and I benefitted (and my buddies) on the course. And last year I started my quest to find the latest golf GPS. Of course the first place to look was at SkyCaddie. SG5 was their first color display improved GPS reception bigger display...but nothing really new in terms of features. I guess they figured they had the market cornered as their competition was range finders. Meanwhile I was starting to get tired of their limitations such as I can only load 10 courses at a time their customer service (or lack of) and their annual membership.



However while they sat on their rear this product sector evolved and other competitors jumped in. This year there are whole suite of new GPS with next generation features. I looked at uPro Golf (now owned by Callaway). Cool flyby like what you see on TV but noticed from other users that it had several common issues mostly with their display and battery life. So my search continued. I then looked at OnPar Golf. It looked like my iPhone with the similar touchscreen and icons. That UI works for iPhone but not for golf GPS. Then I looked at Bushnell Yardage Pro XCG. I thought this was it. It had everything I wanted no major issues mentioned by other users/reviewers. One of my buddies bought one and I had a hands-on experience on a course. I was actually one click away from owning it (from Amazon of course) and I decided to make one last google...and then I found Garmin's Approach G5 unit. Yup it's most expensive GPS unit but it's made by Garmin the GPS expert. I've been very happy with their Nuvi GPS units. They currently have 9400+ courses and they're FREE. NO ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS! You simply download new courses from their web site and you can load all those courses on your unit so no more shuffling courses onto my unit. Best of all it's waterproof! Unlike Skycaddie you're not limited to the 40-targets on each hole (thoughI typically only see a handful). You just drag a circle with your finger on a birds-eye-view and it will tell you how far you are to that. It also keeps scores up to 4 and you can download it to your PC afterwards. I also like that you use batteries instead of rechargeable. I lost count of time I forgot to charge my SkyCaddie and when my buddies call me last minutes I couldn't use it the whole round. Now I just keep spare batteries in my bag.



So the bottom line is before you consider SkyCaddie units research the other GPS models before plunking down your hard earned money. I'm confident that you'll find one with much better features for a similar price. If you're interested in the Garmin G5 there are ton of videos on YouTube so check them out! If money is not an option then definitely go with Garmin Approach G5. Otherwise the Bushnell Yardage Pro XCG is your best bet.



Also for those that own iPhone 3G/3GS there are quite a few apps you can use to make your iPhone into Golf GPS. I've been tinkering with Golfshot (the $29.99 version. Don't bother with their 99 cent version) and I have to say it's damn good app. It even comes with statistical report so you know which part of your game you should be working on. But I'm sticking with my Garmin G5 because the Golfshot depletes my iPhone battery like crazy. My iPhone is not rugged and waterproof either so I'll use it as my backup but not as my main golf GPS.More detail ...

Works As Described

I've used this device twice now. The software setup could be improved. I was able to figure it out even though it would not install on my (D:) drive as I requested. It would still default to the (C:\Program Files)folder. It does allow you to install on multiple computers though. As for the device's operation it was spot-on consistant with a fellow golfer's much more expensive SkyCaddie GPS. Course downloads are simple and I have not found a course yet that I play that is not available. I doubt that I will ever download 100 courses. It would be nice if I could bank my course credits and use them anytime to download courses and then be required to pay an additional $35 for another 100 courses. It's hard to predict what courses I might play during the next 11 months but for the price I don't think it can be beat right now by anything else on the market. More detail ...

Works As Described

I've used this device twice now. The software setup could be improved. I was able to figure it out even though it would not install on my (D:) drive as I requested. It would still default to the (C:\Program Files)folder. It does allow you to install on multiple computers though. As for the device's operation it was spot-on consistant with a fellow golfer's much more expensive SkyCaddie GPS. Course downloads are simple and I have not found a course yet that I play that is not available. I doubt that I will ever download 100 courses. It would be nice if I could bank my course credits and use them anytime to download courses and then be required to pay an additional $35 for another 100 courses. It's hard to predict what courses I might play during the next 11 months but for the price I don't think it can be beat right now by anything else on the market. More detail ...

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